The present invention relates generally to aggregation software, and more particularly to using attributes of individuals to determine attributes of groups that include the individuals and matching tasks to a group based on the determined group attributes.
The tendency of people to come together and form groups is inherent in the structure of our society. The ways in which such groups take shape and evolve over time is a popular research topic in a variety of disciplines ranging from social sciences to computer science. A structured group, such as those on network websites and forums, includes a collection of members. Oftentimes, the members of a structured group share a common interest or attribute. For example, members of a baseball group on a social network website are most likely baseball fans. Structured groups may be separated into smaller groups called subgroups. For example, the baseball group may include subgroups. Each subgroup may represent a different baseball team.
Collection and analysis of individual member attributes, such as preferences, activities, and interests may be useful for network analysis. For example, a networking website may monitor the individual attributes of its members in order to better select advertisements and page suggestions to display for each member. In another example, individual attributes may be used to assign tasks to individuals within a network.